Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 1736

It’s hard to know what someone truly thinks. Hoga-myung knew this well.

Of all the people he had ever met, the one standing before him now was the most impossible to read. Was it the strange red bandages wrapped tightly around his face, hiding most of his features? Or was it those unsettling red eyes, like chips of ruby, that seemed to swallow any attempt to understand what he was thinking?

Hoga-myung believed the biggest reason he couldn’t understand their intentions was their origin.

The Blood Palace.

They were alien. Utterly so.

They were part of the martial world (‘Murim’), but they didn’t follow its rules. They came from a distant place (‘Nine Heavens’), but lived differently from other groups from there.

What frustrated Hoga-myung the most was that he couldn’t understand what they aimed to achieve in life.

As far as he knew, the Blood Palace was a religion. In the past, it was even called the Blood Cult, not the Blood Palace.

That made it even harder to understand.

Most religions in the world shared two common goals: to follow and understand the will of the being they worshipped, and to spread that will.

Hoga-myung’s incomprehension of the Blood Palace stemmed from this very point. They acted like a religion, but they did not try to convert others. They simply lived by their own rules in places untouched by people.

Therefore, it was impossible to know what the leader of a religion that doesn’t try to convert others aimed to achieve in life. What was the point of everything he did, everything he thought?

Some might argue that there was nothing strange about this, that such a religion could exist. But if that were the case, one question inevitably arose.

That question was, ‘Why, then, did they step back into the world?’

But there was no way to answer that question. The Blood Palace Lord, standing like a withered old tree, showed no sign of willingness to talk.

‘Can I figure it out?’

Could Jang Il-so, his lord, truly understand what this man was thinking?

As Hoga-myung wondered this, Jang Il-so spoke in his unique nasal tone.

“Hmm.”

Jang Il-so looked at the Blood Palace Lord, a deep interest in his eyes.

“How is it?”

“……”

“Is the world outside more enjoyable than the musty, filthy cave you came from?”

At those words, the bandages on the Blood Palace Lord’s face twitched slightly.

“Perhaps. But… shouldn’t you know, then? That you might return to that filthy cave someday.”

A faint bloody aura came from the Blood Palace Lord’s eyes as he looked at Jang Il-so. But Jang Il-so continued without stopping.

“You know.”

Jang Il-so chuckled.

“There’s no other path anyway. Now, even that filthy cave is no longer safe for you.”

“I know. As you say.”

At that moment, a voice like metal scraping against stone came from the Blood Palace Lord. It was deeper and heavier than before.

“There is no other path.”

The Blood Palace Lord’s eyes, glowing red, stared at Jang Il-so, who was smiling as if amused.

“I admit we haven’t been helpful so far.”

“Straightforward.”

“From now on, it will be different.”

“……”

Jang Il-so silently looked at the Blood Palace Lord.

After a long moment of watching the Blood Palace Lord, Jang Il-so finally nodded.

“I’ll trust you.”

“……”

“You may go.”

The Blood Palace Lord turned and left the tent without hesitating.

“……”

Hoga-myung looked at Jang Il-so with a slightly confused expression.

“L-Lord.”

Wasn’t he summoned to figure out the Blood Palace Lord’s intentions? But what had he learned from this short talk?

“Heeeuuum.”

Before Hoga-myung could say how confused he was, Jang Il-so leaned back in his chair, relaxing.

“Interesting.”

“Lord, what on earth……”

“Hm?”

Jang Il-so tilted his head back to look at Hoga-myung. His unusually red lips curved into a strange smile.

“What is it, Ga-myung?”

“Weren’t you trying to understand his intentions?”

“Indeed.”

“But why……”

“Tsk, tsk. Ga-myung, Ga-myung. Why are you stating the obvious?”

Jang Il-so raised his head again and lightly grasped the glass in front of him.

“Words are meaningless. Anything that can be made up is bound to contain lies.”

Jang Il-so quietly watched the swaying liquor in his glass. A strong smell of alcohol filled the air around him.

“But some things cannot be hidden. Even if the drink looks clear like water, you can still smell it.”

“……What did you see?”

“It’s gone.”

“Gone, you say?”

Jang Il-so chuckled. It was hard to explain in words.

“Well, should I call it fear, or unease? Such simple words can’t fully describe it, but there was a despair like that of a person drowning in a swamp. They had it.”

“……”

“But that’s gone now.”

“Does that mean the problem they had has been resolved?”

“Perhaps.”

A sinister light flickered in Jang Il-so’s eyes. It was a look that seemed to mock the entire world.

“Do you know when a person tormented by fear gets rid of it?”

“……I do not.”

“There are two cases. One is when the source of that fear disappears.”

“……”

“The other is… when they no longer need to be afraid.”

Jang Il-so’s gaze turned bleak.

“Don’t worry about it. It doesn’t seem like they have other intentions. Or… to be precise, what they intend to do doesn’t seem to conflict with what we’re trying to do.”

Hoga-myung’s face hardened slightly.

In other words, he clearly suspects that the man has other intentions, but he intends to simply ignore it for now. But Hoga-myung knew that matters glossed over like this were bound to cause trouble later.

“Don’t you know?”

“……”

“That one day, that festering wound could become a great trap that tightens around your neck, Lord?”

“I know.”

Jang Il-so slowly drank the liquor in his glass.

“Very well.”

The strong smell of alcohol filled his mouth. It was hot and dizzying, as if he had swallowed poison.

“Rather……”

“You know, Ga-myung.”

“……”

“Even if a poisoned arrow is stuck in your arm, if there’s an enemy in front of you, you don’t have time to slowly pull it out and deal with it. Even if it means cutting off that arm later, you have to fight first.”

“Isn’t there a way to cut it off in advance?”

“Then the enemy will kill me. A cripple with one arm gone would be an easy target.”

A short sigh escaped Hoga-myung’s lips.

Like Jang Il-so said, he knew it too.

It was a mess.

The Hao Clan, the Solar Palace, the Blood Palace—all had different thoughts. He had brought them together under the name of the League, but this loose connection could break at any moment.

But Hoga-myung also knew that war was inherently like this. The more victories and defeats, the more animosity grew. War was something that had to move forward, swallowing all of that.

However……

“It’s fortunate that we have liquor, don’t you think?”

“……Lord.”

Hoga-myung wanted to comfort Jang Il-so. He seemed more relaxed and carefree than anyone else, but Hoga-myung knew that the burden he carried in this situation was by no means light.

But at that moment, the words that came from Jang Il-so’s mouth were even further from Hoga-myung’s expectations.

“It at least hides the disgusting smell of those swarming pigs.”

“……”

Hoga-myung stared at Jang Il-so with a blank expression.

Nothing had changed.

This man, even in this situation… He felt ashamed of himself for having momentarily felt weak.

“But, Ga-myung.”

“……Yes, Lord.”

“We’re used to it, aren’t we?”

Jang Il-so looked at Hoga-myung with a gentle smile.

“……”

Hoga-myung stared at those eyes for a long time, and before he knew it, he burst out laughing.

“……You’re right.”

Yes. He was used to it.

The sight of vile fiends arguing over even the smallest gains. The sight of comrades in arms constantly looking for chances to stab each other in the back. And the way of fighting with a smile among those enemy-filled bastards.

It wasn’t particularly new to those who had crawled up from the deepest parts of the Demonic Path. It was just funny that such things were happening even in the middle of this.

But he could also understand it.

He didn’t know why, but it had been like this in the past as well. The more intense the war, the more evil people became.

“There’s nothing new about it. Shaking the Jianghu, being the master of a force—in the end, they’re just slightly bigger piglets.”

“……”

“As long as we don’t let go of the reins… they won’t show their teeth until the war is over.”

That was true.

But Hoga-myung was also aware of the other side of those words. How much it wore a person down to hold those reins, controlling them and fighting such a war.

The rare shadows that flickered across Jang Il-so’s pale face proved that fact.

But he had to endure. War was about moving forward while swallowing filth. The side that couldn’t endure to the end would be defeated. Jang Il-so and Hoga-myung both knew that.

“There’s no need to worry so much.”

“Yes?”

Jang Il-so was already smiling at him.

“Of course, I’m not in a position to brag either. I could have a knife stuck in my neck at any moment.”

Jang Il-so downed the liquor he had poured into his glass in one gulp.

Several poisoned blades were already aimed at his back. If he showed even the slightest opening, those daggers would pierce his back without hesitation.

But he couldn’t remove them either. The moment he pushed those daggers away, the things he wanted would never be his.

Moving forward.

Moving forward as if the daggers aimed at his back didn’t exist—that was the path that those who wanted to become the overlord of the world had to walk.

“But… there’s no need to worry so much.”

“……”

“War isn’t complicated. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s enough to be just a little better than the enemy.”

Jang Il-so’s eyes turned bleak.

“The swamp of war is fair to everyone, isn’t it?”

They were trapped in a swamp of reality and desire, a mire that they sank deeper into no matter how much they struggled.

But what about them?

They, too, were probably in a mire now. Not the mire that Jang Il-so was in, but a mire of ideals.

“Do you think they will collapse on their own?”

“Perhaps.”

Jang Il-so smiled.

“It won’t be that easy.”

“……”

“But keep this in mind. It’s not the swords of reality that bring down those kinds of people. They can die with a smile even with a sword in their neck. However……”

Jang Il-so’s eyes gleamed eerily.

“When they realize that the ideals they’ve believed in are nothing… they collapse strangely easily.”

“……”

“Even with a very small trigger.”

Jang Il-so’s eyes held both deep emptiness and fervor at the same time.

“Can they escape? The contradiction they created themselves? Can they endure? The collapse of the symbol of that contradiction?”

Jang Il-so chuckled.

“It’s a shame. It would be more enjoyable if we could sit face to face and share a drink.”

Jang Il-so raised his glass. The excitement he had felt when facing the Mount Hua Sword Saint was contained in that liquor.

And at that moment, in a grand hall, a man with eyes that held a gaze eerily similar to Jang Il-so’s looked at those sitting before him. This man was Baek Cheon.

His lips slowly opened.

“Baek Cheon, the chief disciple of Mount Hua.”

“……”

“I greet the Supreme Elder.”

A suffocating tension filled the vast hall.